The Kuiper belt as a research area encompasses the systematic investigation of the trans-Neptunian region of the Solar System populated by icy planetesimals, dwarf planets, and small bodies beyond Neptune’s orbit. Research focuses on the dynamical structure, composition, and collisional evolution of Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) to constrain models of planetary formation, migration, and early Solar System architecture. This field integrates observational surveys, orbital dynamics, spectroscopy, and thermophysical modeling to characterize size distributions, surface and volatile properties, and resonant populations, and to understand the Kuiper belt’s role as a reservoir for short-period comets and as a probe of primordial circumstellar disk conditions.
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence that the spinning of a small comet slowed and then reversed its direction of rotation, offering a dramatic example of how volatile activity can affect the ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 26, 2026
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Astronomers have long debated why so many icy objects in the outer solar system look like snowmen. Michigan State University researchers now have evidence of the surprisingly simple process that could be responsible for their ...
Astronomy
Feb 19, 2026
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Astronomers have long sought evidence to explain why comets at the outskirts of our own solar system contain crystalline silicates, since crystals require intense heat to form and these "dirty snowballs" spend most of their ...
Astronomy
Jan 21, 2026
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70
Astronomers have, for the first time, captured a detailed snapshot of planetary systems in an era long shrouded in mystery. The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS), using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter ...
Astronomy
Jan 20, 2026
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A vast region of our solar system, called the Kuiper belt, stretches from the orbit of Neptune out to 50 or so astronomical units (AU), where an AU is the distance between Earth and the sun. This region consists mostly of ...
Astronomers have discovered what they think may be another moon orbiting a distant dwarf planet called Quaoar. This small, icy, egg-shaped planet in the far reaches of our solar system, beyond Neptune, is already known to ...
Trans-Neptunian objects (TNO) are some of our solar system's lesser-known objects. They number in the thousands, and they get their name from their orbits. These dwarf planets orbit the sun at a greater average distance than ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 16, 2025
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398
The Subaru Telescope has made an exciting discovery: a small body beyond Pluto, with implications for the formation, evolution, and current structure of the outer solar system.
Astronomy
Jul 16, 2025
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139
A team of astronomers led by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian has discovered a rare object far beyond Neptune, from a class known as trans-Neptunian objects, that is moving in rhythm with the giant planet. ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 15, 2025
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501
As NASA's New Horizons spacecraft traveled through the Kuiper Belt at a distance of more than 5.5 billion miles from Earth, an international team of astronomers used the far-flung probe to conduct an unprecedented experiment: ...
